Just as Chevrolet had a prehistoric V8, so did BMW, with the aluminum-block, 90-degree engine used to power the BMW 502, 503, 507, and 3200 CS. Built from 1954 through 1965, the BMW OHV was available in displacements of 2.6 and 3.2 liters. Maximum horsepower output was 160. V8 fans had to wait nearly 30 years for BMW to return to the V8 layout.

[Wikipedia, Image source: USA Auto Parts]

Those of you on the other side of the Atlantic might note that the Kent was installed in plenty of beloved British Ford machinery, including the Anglia and Cortina. In fact, the Kent qualifies for our upcoming Longest-Lived Vehicle Engines Of All Freakin' Time feature, being manufactured from 1959 until the present day. Variations of the Kent (some with overhead-cam heads) were used in cars ranging from the Fiesta to the Lotus Elan to the TVR Vixen.

[Wikipedia , image source: Burton Power]

We love inline-six engines, and Toyota has made some of the best. Oh, sure, BMW made some pretty powerful ones, and Chrysler made one that couldn't be killed, but it's hard to argue with 320 twin-turbocharged factory horsepower out of 3 liters. We North Americans mostly know of this engine via the Supra, but Toyota dropped it in Chasers, Crowns, Soarers, and quite a few other rear-wheel-drive machines. Sadly, the JZ has been retired, leaving the late-70s-vintage G as Toyota's lone I6.
[Wikipedia]

Click on the photo of any engine below to jump to the original post honoring that engine.

Toyota R	Ford Flathead V8	BMW M30
Nissan L	Small-Block Chevrolet V8	Volkswagen Air-Cooled
BMC B Series	Chrysler Slant Six	Rolls-Royce V8
Honda B	GMC Twin Six	Jaguar XK
Pontiac V8	Mazda B	Fiat Twin-Cam
Porsche Flat Six	Offenhauser	Willys Go-Devil
Chrysler LA	Packard Inline 8	Mazda 13B
Crosley COBRA	Volvo Red Block	Subaru EJ
AMC Straight Six	Citroën Type A	Toyota A
Ford Windsor V8	Mercedes-Benz OM617	Nissan SR
Chrysler Trans Four	Chevrolet D V8	Ford Modular
Chrysler A57 Multibank	Ford OHC	Honda D
Buick Nailhead	Buick 215/Rover V8	BMW M10
Volkswagen W	Chrysler IV2220 V16	MEMZ-968
Lotus 900 Series	Ford 385	Mercedes-Benz M100 V8
Chrysler B V8	Toyota M	General Motors LS
Honda F20C	Alfa Romeo Twin Cam	Yamaha SHO V6
BMW M70 V12	Mitsubishi Sirius	Saab H
GM Iron Duke	Coventry Climax FW/FP	Ferrari Dino V6/V8/V12
Ford FE V8	BMC A	Audi 4.2 V8
Big-Block Chevrolet V8	BMW M20	Fiat SOHC
Chrysler Flathead Six	Saab 2-Stroke	Oldsmobile Gen 2 V8
Suzuki G	PRV V6	Cadillac OHV V8
Hudson Six	Nissan VH	Ford Model T
Buick V6	Nissan VG

If you like weird twists and turns in your engine-history plot, you'll like the Buick V6. Buick engineers took their aluminum 215-cube V8, lopped off a couple of cylinders, and cast the shortened block and heads in cast iron. The result displaced 198 cubes and made its debut (as the "Fireball V6") in the 1962 Buick Special. Oldsmobile and Buick dropped the 198 and later 225 into their A-bodies, but The General made the decision to use the Chevrolet I6 250 as their six-banger of choice. The V6 was sold off to… ready for this? Kaiser-Jeep! When those Kenosha swashbucklers at AMC bought Kaiser-Jeep in 1970, the bulletproof AMC Straight Six shoved the Buick aside.
Fast-forward to the dawn of the Malaise Era: "Rat turds!" screamed The General's suits up on the Fourteenth Floor, "We need a V6, like, yesterday! So, all the Buick V6 tooling traveled back from Wisconsin to Detroit and the world was introduced to the 231-cubic-inch "new" Buick V6, which was installed in such stellar machines as the Skyhawk. The funky "odd-fire" crank setup made the engine rough, but reliability was very good (and The General eventually loosened the purse strings enough for his engineers to make a smoother "even-fire" version).
Keep fast-forwarding, and you'll find this engine surviving through the Malaise Era, through the Oliver North Era, and all the way up until the present day. Displacements have come and gone, but the 3800 aka 231 has proven itself to have the real staying power; not only did a turbocharged version power the legendary Buick GNX, but Eaton superchargers started getting bolted on during the 90s. What was the most powerful factory Buick V6? Well, that depends on whether you believe The General's numbers about the GNX! Hate away, you pushrod-phobes, but you're looking at a success story.

[Wikipedia, image source here]

While Nissan continued to build inline sixes well into the current century, the more compact V6 design provided more versatility for front-wheel-drive installations (while allowing for shorter engine compartments in rear-wheel-drive cars) and was built in much larger numbers. Available in displacements of 2.0, 3.0, and 3.3 liters and equipped with single- or double-overhead camshafts, the VG was installed in everything from the Z to the Hardbody truck.

[Wikipedia]

The heated battle yesterday over the merits of a $3,700 Pontiac ended with a surprising 75% Nice Price vote saving the LeMans to cruise Hollywood yet another night. Speaking of Hollywood- it's a long way from Cherry Hill New Jersey, which is where we're headed today.

Nash Kelvinator had always been a second-tier automaker here in the U.S., and by the mid-fifties, while everybody was leaving it to beaver and loving lucy, they quietly merged with Hudson to form American Motors. A brand cue of Nash's (other than Nash Seats which would have engendered a population explosion had the cars been more popular) was the bathtub body design. The tall fenders with semi-skirted wheel arches - front and rear - made the cars look like they should always be transporting a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker. While the major competition was zooming into the future on fins bedecked with chrome, and everything longer, lower and faster, what Nash felt America needed was a diminutive shoppers trolly disguised as a car. Setting one of their biggest Kelvinator washing machines on extra-hot, they shrunk down their compact Rambler into the even smaller two-seat Metropolitan- an example of which is our candidate today.

This 1961 Metro is attractive for both its convertible top which lets the sun in, and an opening trunk, which lets you in to get your stuff. Previous models required you to limbo your way behind the seats to access your bottles of scotch and Life magazines. The two-tone paint is most complimentary to the cheery but rounded shape, which is surprising on such a small car. That carries over to the interior with a pair of broad seats, in red and white, and a metal dash that is dominated by the speedometer- directly ahead of the wheel and three on the tree shifter.

While Father may know best, the mileage of this BMC- B-series powered Metro is in question. The seller claims it might be 21,000, or. . . maybe not. But really, who cares? You're not buying this for its long term drivability. This is a fun car, a top-down Sunday afternoon kind of car.

And with those expectations in mind, let's revisit that price. The seller is asking $16,500 for this littlest Nash, and that gets you not only the top and the trunk lid, but also a continental kit, which looks a lot less ridiculous on this than you might imagine. These cars have extensive support networks- the Nash Metro Club has chapters all over the place and the members typically aren't weirdos, just regular folk. And they're not all a bunch of dwarves, so stop thinking that.

So what will it be for this Nash with panache? Is $16,500 a Price that is Nice for this slice of American life? Or, is the seller smoking the Crack - from a tiny, little Crack Pipe - for asking that?

You decide!

South Jersey Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears. Hat tip to evanschmitt!

There's no need for all those power-sucking valvetrain parts and wasted piston motions with a two-stroke. Saab built two- and three-cylinder two-strokers during the 1950s and 1960s, and the three-banger was installed in various Saabs (including the 95 and 96) from 1955 through 1966. Thanks to Tanshanomi for the recommendation!
[Wikipedia, The Auto Channel]

The first Chrysler Flathead Six, a 68-horsepower engine displacing 201 cubic inches, appeared in 1924, and it was still being installed in Dodge Power Wagons and military M37 trucks as late as 1968 (the last of the Flathead Six-powered Chrysler cars rolled off the assembly line in 1959). After that, Chrysler kept making the engine for industrial and farm use well into the 1970s. 50 years, or just close to it? We'll need input from you serious vintage Mopar experts to know for sure!
[Wikipedia, Allpar]

Bernice, of the Italian Stallions 24 Hours Of LeMons team (that's her on the left, replacing a head gasket on a Fiat SOHC in the bracing 36° air at Arse Freeze-A-Palooza '08), wants us to know "This FIAT engine often ignored in the US due to its small displacement, regardless it is IMO one of FIAT's best engines from the 1960's. While the FIAT twin cam gets much of the glory and noted attention, this is actually the better of the two in some ways. Designed by Aurelio Lampredi, famed Ferrari engine designer before he went to work for FIAT. He is also the one who designed the FIAT twin cam from this era. Production of this engine ran from 1969 to 2005. By the mid-1980's FIAT produced over 6 million copies with numerous variants."

Originally designed to power the Fiat 128 (which, as we know, Enzo Ferrari chose to use as his daily driver) the Fiat SOHC had a good long run, from 1969 to 1999. In addition to 128s and X1/9s, a version of this engine was used in that Balkan legend, the Yugo (including turbocharged examples). The Ritmo/Strada, Punto, and 127 also had Fiat SOHC power, and a number of Lancia machines were fitted with this iron-block/aluminum-head workhorse as well.

[Mirafiori.com, Wikipedia]

The FE was one of Ford's big sellers, manufactured from 1958 through 1976 and installed in millions of trucks, family sedans, wood-grained wagons, and U-joint-snappin', donuts-in-the-convenience-store-parking-lot Dearborn muscle. Best-known in its 352, 390, and 428 cubic inch incarnations, the FE (the acronym stood for "Ford-Edsel," trivia fans) also came in 332, 360, 361, 406, 410, and 427 cubic inch displacements. You European snobs dismissing the FE as "just another low-tech pushrod V8" can just climb back into your rusty Renault 15s and sputter off in a cloud of indignant oil smoke, because Ford built a SOHC version of the side-oiler 427 that made well over 600 horsepower... which, sadly, was never offered as an optional powerplant on the Country Squire.
[Wikipedia, Image source: SOHC427Ford.com]

The overhead-cam Dino family of engines has been with us since the first version- a 60° V6 displacing 1,984cc- debuted in 1958. Since that time, Ferrari has made the Dino in V6, V8, and V12 versions, with 60° and 65° vee angles, cast iron and aluminum block variations, turbocharged or naturally aspirated, and with single or double overhead camshafts- you name it, they've done it with the Dino. From the Fiat Dino to the Ferrari Enzo and Maserati MC12, the Dino looks to be on a run to challenge such engine lifers as the Toyota R and the small-block Chevrolet in the longevity competition.
[Wikipedia]

The H is still being manufactured to this day, serving in the Saab 9-3 and 9-5. That means that the engines that power those two vehicles are not-too-distant relatives of the wonderfully horrible Triumph V8 in the Stag! By the time Saab got around to the H, however, the reliability had been improved by several orders of magnitude over the Triumph four, and nearly 30 (or 40, if you count the B engine) years of front-line service stands as a very impressive engineering achievement. We don't recommend the H as a 24 Hours Of LeMons engine (though the Box Wrench Garage Saab 900 Turbo managed to finish fourth at the Goin' For Broken '09 and fifth at the Altamont '08 race), because of that rod-throwing thing, but it makes for a solid street engine with plenty of turbocharged power potential.
[Wikipedia]

Available in displacements ranging from a gas-sipping 1.6 liters to a torquey 2.4 liters, the most famous of all the 4G6 Sirius engines was the 1,997cc turbocharged 4G63T of rally-dominating Lancer Evolution and Galant VR-4 fame. Variations of the Sirius have been installed in dozens of different Mitsubishi, Chrysler, Hyundai, and Chery vehicles, from the Chariot to the Sonata, and the 4G69 Sirius lives on today in the Eclipse, Outlander, and Galant. That's nearly 30 years, which gives the Sirius an automatic acceptance into the Jalopnik Workhorse Engine Hall-O-Fame™. Thanks to EvoCS for recommending the 4G6!
[Wikipedia; image source: Tampa Racing]

It used to be that the only cheap V12 you could find for your Hell Project was the good ol' Jaguar unit. Sure, that's just the ticket for a moderate power upgrade to your Austin-Healey 100, but now the cheap self-service junkyards are filling up with BMW E32s, as owners realize that there's no such thing as a cheap or minor repair for a top-of-the-line 7 series. The North America-market M70 put out 322 horsepower and 361 foot-pounds of torque in the '97 750iL and 850Ci, and it did it with such smoothness that even the most sensitive Ponzi-scheme mastermind wouldn't be irritated.
[Wikipedia]

I've also become quite familiar with the sound of exhausted SHO mechanics screaming as they flay all the skin off their knuckles during the inevitable all-night wrenchathons that take place whenever this engine hits the race track. It's totally worth it, though, because this Yamaha-built DOHC V6 was an engineering masterpiece of its time and still looks and sounds incredibly good. 220 naturally aspirated horses out of 3.0 liters may not sound terribly impressive these days, but it was flat-out amazing back in the late 1980s. Ford originally hired Yamaha to design and build this engine for a mid-engined sports car, but- apparently taking a lesson from their main rival's experience with the Fiero- Ford cancelled that car and started looking around for some other recipient for their new powerplant. The Taurus got the honor, but imagine how things might have been different with the SHO V6 in, say, the Merkur XR4Ti? Yamaha designed it for transverse or longitudinal mounting, so why not?

[Wikipedia]

Say what you will about Detroit's primitive suspensions and iffy build quality during the postwar period, but there's no denying that The General cranked out inexpensive, reliable, and powerful pushrod V8s by the tens of millions. We've honored the Buick 215 aka Rover V8, the Buick Nailhead, the Cadillac OHV, the Pontiac V8, and the Small-Block Chevrolet so far in this series, and today it's the turn of the Olds V8s built during the 1964-1990 period (yes, we'll eventually get to the big-block Chevy and the others, so be patient). Starting with the 330-cubic-inch Jetfire Rocket, this engine family (technically split into "small-block" and "big-block" categories based on deck height, but otherwise the same) included the axle-snapping 455 that powered the '70 442, countless 350s and 400s that were stuffed inside Cutlasses, and the 403, which was stuffed into just about every GM vehicle that would hold still on the assembly line. The "6.6 Litre" engines in the Malaise Trans Ams were Olds 403s… and we'd say that perhaps that engine is best forgotten, but we're saving that distinction for the ill-fated diesel version of the 350. I had a purple '69 Cutlass with the (gas) 350 for a regrettably brief, donuts-on-your-lawn period in my teens, and I think I turned more cheap tires into black marks on the pavement with this engine than with any other. Hooray for torque!

[Wikipedia, 442.com; Image source: Fotki]

It took an angry tirade from the inimitable Wheels Of Satan, complete with cries of perceived anti-Alfa discrimination in favor of the AMC Straight Six, to call this oversight to my attention, so here we go! The Alfa Twin Cam was produced from 1954 through 1994, with displacements ranging from 1,290 to 1,995 CCs, and was installed in Giuliettas, Spiders, 164s, you name it. It's aluminum, it's got two cams, and it's a hemi! We've seen plenty of Afla Twin Cams in the 24 Hours Of LeMons, and they do pretty well when they're not throwing rods.
[Wikipedia]

These days, the North American and Japanese versions of the S2000 gets the F22C1 engine, a stroker version of the F20C that trades 1,000 RPM off the redline for 11 foot-pounds of torque. Those are the only two variations of this engine Honda has ever made; it's not to be confused with the Accord/Prelude F engine, with which it shares only the bore spacing.
[Image source: Wikipedia]